


Inherited Wanderlust

by Aithilin



Series: Nyx Ulric Appreciation Week 2020 [1]
Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Gen, Mentions of Selena Ulric, Mentions of canon events, Nyx Ulric Appreciation Week, Slice of Life, Wanderlust
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-19
Updated: 2020-06-19
Packaged: 2021-03-03 23:08:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,253
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24803632
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aithilin/pseuds/Aithilin
Summary: Had everything gone his way, Nyx was certain that he’d never have left Galahd.
Relationships: Noctis Lucis Caelum & Nyx Ulric
Series: Nyx Ulric Appreciation Week 2020 [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1794022
Comments: 9
Kudos: 29





	Inherited Wanderlust

When he was young, Nyx had thought it might be nice to travel without straying too far from home. It might be nice to explore the nooks and crannies of Galahd, and see the natural wonders of Lucis if he could ever draw himself away from the work at home. He had thought— however briefly in his youth— that the world might open up to him one day, when things had settled and his little bar had made him enough to take a vacation here and there. He had thought it would be nice to see what was in the coastal cities on the other side of the mountains he had always knows, or go on a hiking tour of the peaks that made Galahd famous. He had considered Libertus’ desire to go on camping tours of the islands, and sample a bit of what his beloved home had to offer. 

But it was Selena who had really wanted to see the world. Properly travel. Escaping the borders that had seemed to fence them in all their lives.

He remembered the wanderlust in her as she trailed after him and Libertus in their youth spent exploring Galahd Canyon and its hidden ruins buried deep in it. He remembered the books and pamphlets she brought with them, prattling on about schools in Gralea, in Cavaugh, in Altissia she wanted to attend, just to get away from home for a few years. He remembered the easy wonder in her voice as she spoke of the Celluna Cascades and the marvel of Zegnautus Keep, the facts that filled the air of hazy summer days as they made their way to a haven deep in the Canyon. She had talked about the Wall of Lucis, and lamented being born after it was withdrawn from Galahd; she had wanted to see the sky shimmer with magic before she died. 

“Did you know that Lucis has most of the natural wonders of Eos?”

There was the Meteor still burning at the Disc and the raining ashes of the Rock of Ravatogh. The burnt plains at the base of the fiery mountain still smouldering eons after the fall of an Astral that created it. There were smoke stacks and glowing rock formations in the mountain, and the hot springs with their geysers hot enough to boil eggs in. There were the scattered Royal Tombs, a testament to the once great size of the Kingdom, nestled in places like the Greyshire Grotto and the Disc of Cauthess, or guarded by the impenetrable forests of Cleigne that had never been tamed. He had heard Selena speak of the great arches of Duscae, curling across the horizon and filling the sky over the wetlands the province was known for. And super blooms of flowers in Leide when the season was right, covering the dust of that province in colour for a brief few weeks, despite an apparent stark beauty in the golden light of the dry province at dusk. 

It had always been Selena who wanted to see the great arched wings of Angelgard rising on the calm waters, mirrored in the night to look like the wings of some avenging Astral readying to take flight in a sea of stars. 

Nyx wasn’t sure he appreciated it the same way his sister would have. He had travelled enough to sate his own sense of wanderlust for a lifetime, but he knew that she would have been itching to go further, see more. She would have marvelled at everything he had seen so far— the wings of Angelgard, the great Crown City of Lucis, the shimmering arch of the Wall— and found the best in the world to believe in. 

“Does it?”

Galdin Quay was built to appreciate the step hills of Lucis, and the crystal waters of the Allural Deep. It was a marcel itself, with the long pier and hotel settled on the water. Seabirds roosting in the trees that lined the beaches and rose from the shallows as people enjoyed the white sands even now in the early night. The dark line of Altissia could barely be seen on the horizon as ferries moved to and fro all day. But Angelgard seemed to take up the whole view. 

“Apparently,” Nyx said, glancing at the Crown Prince he was meant to be guarding. The royal Shield was running errands nearby, slipping into the fishing village of Galdin that glowed in the evening light just beyond the hill. He wondered at the view from the little town; it would face the strange island almost head on. The strange shape and shine of something that had kept catching the evening light would be more visible. Maybe even recognizable. “I passed the Rock and the Disc on my way through to Insomnia when I was first recruited.”

They had been wonders, he was sure. But he had been reeling then. Tired and in pain, mourning the loss of the safe little life he had thought he built. The quiet little life that had only started. 

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen them,” the Prince mused, watching the glow of the strange fish from the little deck of the room. Nyx could see the perpetual debate starting: to fish or not to fish. 

“Would you want to?”

“Maybe,” Noctis seemed to have decided to behave in the luxurious room. To watch the calm evening waters instead. “I don’t know.”

They would be leaving in the morning; taking a ferry from the glowing resort before dawn and crossing the Allural Deep. They would be attending some diplomatic event, Noctis playing a substitute for his father in the decadence of Altissia. 

Nyx’s stomach turned in excitement as he remembered the stories read from travel magazines and pamphlets filling the childhood summer air with Selena’s voice. “Anything you want to do in Altissia?”

“I—“ Noctis seemed to stop and think, the world and its possibilities opening with the single question. A single city, miles away across the water, full of strange stories and lives that Noctis must have only read about before. “I don’t know. What is there to do in Altissia anyway?”

Nyx smiled at that, still watching the distant waters around the outstretched wings of the forbidden island rising on the dark horizon. “Apparently, there’s a lot to do, Highness. I’ve been told the Celluna Cascades are a wonder, and the city is supposed to be beautiful. There’s the Temple to the Tidemother, and the statue of Bismarck to see.”

“Have you ever been, hero?”

“No, but I wanted to go since I was little.”

Eos was a wide, wonderful world, Nyx knew. He remembered the tales of strange phenomena and the golden glow of the sun setting on cities like Altissia. He remembered looking at pictures in his youth of the Lucian natural wonders, the beasts that couldn’t seem to be found anywhere else in the world— like the catoblepas and Zu— and the great cities he had never expected to see. He remembered his sister’s wish to see it all— to escape the quiet little town in the forest and mountains, in sight of the grey Galahdian seas— and the urge to wander the world with her he used to feel that he could never admit to back then. 

“Where else do you want to go, anyway? You’ve seen more of the world than I have.”

“Everywhere, highness,” Nyx admitted, remembering Selena’s answer when asked the same question. “I think I’d like to see everything.”


End file.
